It's easy to get it in your head that you don't really have anything to be proud of - that you just haven't done anything worth anyone remembering. It's a lot easier to be down on yourself than it is to remember how proud you should be of everything you've done.

But, you have done it and you should celebrate yourself.

You truthfully have so much to look back on and be proud of. Think about it: things have not always been easy - but they have been worth it. It may have been difficult and you probably thought you'd never really get through it, but you did. So, as of now, you've done something a lot of people are still waiting to do. You should be so proud of yourself. And being proud of yourself doesn't make you boastful, it doesn't make you full of yourself, it simply makes you happier.
To say that "you must love yourself so someone else can" is so true in my eyes. How many times in life have we just felt unloved and unwanted and unworthy because of the things we have placed on ourselves? I can count the number of times that I have talked myself out of things, out of relationships, out of goals and future successes all because I thought I wasn't good enough.

You might have fallen down, but you have always gotten back up. You might have been under peer pressure, but you've never let it become bigger than the better you. You have learned to surround yourself with successful people who have the same ambitions and those who believe in you. You have chased your dreams and developed a new self esteem. You have let the negatives become positives, the old become the new, and the dark become the light. It's not because of anyone else - but YOU.

You haven't made up excuses for things and you've done the things no one said you would. You've done the things that scare you - the things that make you work. They might have been hard at first, but you succeeded.

Thank you for never choosing the easy way out. You've always fought and even though you could have just went down the easy road, you took your dignity and you ran with it. Thank you for turning to God and always respecting everyone around you. The bad ones and the good - they have molded you in some way. Thank you for taking the negative and making it a motivation. You've really overcame.

You don't get enough credit for all you have done. You have so much to be proud of and so much success to celebrate. Continue to believe in yourself and in your heart, continue to look to God, and always be yourself.

"You are kind, you are smart, and you are important." -The Help